Long Time No Blog

How do I explain why I've been missing in action for so long, when the events that kept me away have little to do with the reason for this blog - RVing?

Turns out, once I sat down to write this, it was easier than I thought. The truth is, everything has to do with our RVing, or our desire to be RVing, or the things that prevent us from RVing. That's because we are always dreaming about it and planning it. But you know what they say, "We plan. God laughs."

And so went this last year. We planned and God laughed. Over and over.

My mother got sick last March. We had to cut our last trip short and rush home to care for her. I'll spare you the gory details. Suffice it to say, every time we thought she was getting better, she wasn't. It became all consuming leaving little time or energy for anything else. She was in and out of hospitals and nursing homes with seemingly no solution and no good end in site. Until there was. Until that one doctor finally listened. Until someone who had the power to help did.

She had surgery in early January 2017 and is getting stronger every day. But just as she was finding her way back to her old self, allowing us to feel it was safe to consider hitting the road, some dumbass (that'd be me) slipped on the steps breaking her left ankle and spraining her right one. The broken ankle required surgery. That was seven weeks ago. I'm one week into my rehab and won't be up and walking for another month at least.

But we are still dreaming and planning. Seeing no need to take any chances, we crossed our fingers and toes, knocked on wood, lit a candle to St. Jude and St. Christopher, and moved our timeline up yet again. And when we do finally head out on our next adventure, of course, we will take you along for the ride. Assuming you're still out there. And if you are, my sincerest thanks for sticking around.

-Diane

Should I Stay Or Should I Go

It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog. The last two and half months have been a blur of activity, and there just wasn’t any time. A few days before we were due to return home from our last trip we got a call that my Mom was sick. We packed up, broke down in record time, and made a mad two-day dash back to NY. It feels like I’m just now coming up for air. 

Nana (Bill's Mom)

Bill’s Mom is 97. My Dad is 83 and Mom is 80. All have health problems. Bill’s Mom lives at home, but has aides that take beautiful care of her. Until a few months ago, my parents were mostly still independent. Dad has mobility issues, but he can get around on his own. Mom, in spite of her apparent memory issues, had few limitations. All that has changed. After ten days in the hospital and seven weeks in a nursing home, she came home two weeks ago. She is making slow progress, but needs assistance with everything. As a result, we have 12 hours per day of aide care in place. I don’t expect her to make a full recovery and know that their lives as they knew it is over. That means mine, as I knew it, is also. 

We haven’t been doing this long, but the few times we’ve hit the road for any considerable length of time, the thought that something like this could happen was always in the back of our minds. Now it’s more than just a fear. It’s a reality. So what now? How do we balance our desire to travel with the needs of our aging parents? More importantly, how do we do it without feeling guilty? 

Maybe we don’t. Maybe we just don’t go. Maybe we just can’t. Then again, maybe we have to anyhow. Maybe it would be a mistake to put our dreams on hold. After all, life is so short. But that takes me back to how. How do we find a way to do both? Be there for our parents and fulfill our RV dreams. 

Mom and Dad

My parents would be the first to say, “Go!” When Mom got sick they insisted that we not come home early. But really, there was no chance that was going to happen. There was no way we could have stayed and enjoyed ourselves. So, now that things are the way they are, how do we go in the future and enjoy ourselves? 

We’re thinking of Southern Utah next May. Five weeks away from home. If we go, and something happens, will we be able to forgive ourselves? But, if we don’t go, will we be able to forgive ourselves? Round and round it goes...

-Diane

Food Karma

We’d visited the historical sights. We’d admired the architecture. We’d seen the devastation in the ninth ward. We toured the unique graveyards. We’d explored the narrow and charming streets of the French Quarter. We’d listened to Jazz on a steamboat, in the clubs and on the street – even lucked upon a Jazz wedding as it passed by. We drank Dark N’ Stormies, Hurricanes and fell in love with Abita Amber, the local brew. New Orleans has so much to offer and we took it all in with relish.

However, if we had to choose a favorite thing, which is pretty much like choosing a favorite child, it would be the food. No matter how inexpensive or upscale, we never had a bad meal. We loved it all. And me, I loved it just a wee bit more. You see, there is this thing that happens to me with freakish regularity. I never get my meal as I order it. Not ever. No matter how simple or basic, it comes out of the kitchen with something amiss. Even when ordered from the menu without changes. Ask Bill. He’ll tell you. It’s simply bizarre. I think it might be some bad karma from a past life coming back to bite me. But in New Orleans my food curse was finally broken.

 The Ruby Slipper’s eggs came with a buttermilk biscuit the size of my head, stone ground grits and fried green tomatoes. It was the south on plate. Joey K’s red rice and beans was damned close to the homemade version a long ago boyfriend, Adam from Mobile, once made me – his Momma’s recipe. The Joint’s BBQ brisket melted in my mouth. NOLA Po’ Boys’ crawfish po’ boy was heaven on a cloud of bread. Court of the Two Sisters’ filet mignon was cooked to perfection and possibly the best I’ve ever had. The Mississippi River Bottom’s fried catfish platter was light and crisp and a delight on the tongue. And every delectable morsel came to the table just the way I asked for it. For me, that was priceless and elevated my experience from satisfying and enjoyable to rapturous pleasure.

It remains to be seen if this curse is truly broken, if this trend will continue beyond the Big Easy, but either way, the Crescent City will always hold a special place in my culinary heart.

-Diane

Uneasy Start in The Big Easy

We made it to New Orleans from the Catskills Mountains in just over two days. We arrived so early on the third day that after setting up we still had the whole day in front of us.

We stayed at the French Quarter RV Park located, as its name indicates, just blocks from the border of the French Quarter off Basin Street. The park itself is quite nice. Securely enclosed inside four walls, it is quaintly decorated and the staff is friendly and helpful providing concierge services including calling a cab, making diner reservations or booking a city tour. But as we were to find out, the surrounding area can be a bit iffy.

Using the map provide by the staff, we decided to take a stroll into the Quarter to see what we could see and get a bite to eat. However, due to deficiencies in the map and our map reading skills, we took a wrong turn and found ourselves in a very unsavory neighborhood. We quickly became lost and by the time we found our way back to the RV park we were a little shaken up.

So we decide to cab it instead. We dined on oysters and BBQ shrimp at Deanie's Seafood then wondered into Jackson Square. Here we enjoyed the Jazz stylings of Satchmo incarnate and, on a whim, jumped on the Natchez Steamboat and took an evening cruise down the mighty Mississippi. Not too shabby for our first day and, aside from an uneasy start, a foreshadowing of the delightful days to come.

-Diane

The Truck Stops Here

We were headed south to New Orleans. Our goal was to be there in three days. So on this - only our second long-term trip - for the first time, we opted to stay overnight at truck stops. It's an inexpensive and convenient time saver. You just park, eat, shower, sleep and go.

The first leg of our journey was a 600 mile, ten hour drive from Saugerties, NY to Wytheville, VA. We stayed at Love's Travel Stop. We arrived just as the last sliver of sunlight was disappearing in the sky. This location is large and busy with 140 parking spaces. We felt intimated and a bit out of our element. The lot was not full to capacity and we parked in a pull-thru with empty spaces on both sides. We hoped it would stay that way, but before long we were tightly nestled between two idling semis. It was a bit noisy but the low hum of the engines did not disturb our sleep. The only food options were Subway or Chester's Chicken. We went with the chicken. We put off showering until morning. In the morning we decided to put it off until our next stop for expediency's sake and because we felt a bit uncomfortable.

Another 600 miles, ten hours, and a time change later we landed at a TA Travel Center in Meridian, MS with daylight to spare. We immediately preferred this truck stop to the last. The parking area was easier to navigate, there was a nice diner attached to the store, and the showers were on the second floor along with a game room. It was a more inviting atmosphere all around. We enjoyed a delicious and relaxed meal at the Country Pride restaurant, showered and settle in feeling refreshed and at ease. Again, we had a semi one either side, but slept just fine.

All of the truck/travel stops have food and showers. The showers are available to anyone for a fee, which vary by stop. The food options also vary and can be very limited. However, the TA/Petro stops are consistent with either a Country Pride or Iron Skillet restaurant providing a sit-down experience with a full menu. The TA showers were full bathrooms with plenty of room to change and a good-sized walk in shower. They were clean and secure and even included bar soap and fresh towels. At the top of the list of things I thought I'd never say, "I took a truck stop shower - and I liked it!" The fee was $13 per person and worth every penny.

We will be using truck stops again in the future. We have yet to stay at any Flying J's or Pilots and would like to do so. However, based on our limited experience, will seek out the TA/Petro Travel Centers when possible.

-Diane

Sorry - That Does Not Register

We were driving south on I-87 headed home after a very long day. Bill turns to me and says, “So it seems we drove an unregistered RV all over the country. I responded, “In fact, the only time we drove it legally was when we moved her from the dealer to your brother’s property.” Then we laughed and laughed…

Flashback to 24 hours earlier. We were headed upstate in the morning to move the RV to a more convenient storage spot with a plan to stay the weekend. I was getting the paperwork together. We needed proof of insurance and the registration. As I pulled the registration out of the file the expiration date jumped out at me. According to the familiar yellow paper I held in my hand, the registration expired on 12/31/14. But we had gotten the registration on 11/24/14. That meant that the registration had only been valid for 37 days! How could that be possible? Weren't all registrations valid for two years? Something was very wrong. We pride ourselves on researching, self-educating, and learning to do all things RV related, or anything, the right way. This was a major failure and an affront to our inner control freak.

The next morning Bill went to the D.M.V. to straighten it out. What we learned: in New York State, RV registrations are only good until the end of that calendar year, something no one ever explained; we had to get new plates; we needed to get the RV inspected, which we’d never done; and we had to request a copy of the title, which we’d never received. So, yes Virginia, a registration can be valid for only 37 freakin’ days.
 
The registration issue having delayed us, I spent that morning on the phone rescheduling everything for the following day. On a referral from the campground where the RV currently resided, I made an appointment for the inspection with a local truck repair shop. Bill returned home and we hit the road several hours later than we’d planned. Due to a few unexpected but necessary stops and heavy traffic, we were way off schedule. Then the day got even better. We had been traveling about three hours and were about an hour from our destination when Bill realized we had forgotten the fifth wheel's battery. We had removed it and stored it at home to save it from freezing during the winter.

Without the battery we would not be able to operate the leveling jacks. We had no choice but to turn around and return to Long Island to retrieve it. With battery in hand, we were back on the road by 7:00AM the next day. We made good time and arrived around 10:30AM. Then we had an issue with the leveling system controls which hindered hitching up. With the help of one of the campground's employee’s we temporarily resolved that and proceeded to the truck mechanic. This is where our luck turned around.

We met two of the nicest guys you could ever want to meet. Mike and Rich of E. Mower & Son are the greatest. They are super friendly and knowledgeable and serve up old fashioned customer service at its best. In addition to the inspection, they offered some terrific advice and welded our entry step, which had been broken since March of last year (but that's another story). On top of that, they tried to bill us for only the cost of the inspection. We were having none of that. If you’re in the Saugerties, NY area and you need RV repairs, we highly recommend this shop. They made our day. Finally, we transported the RV to her new abode and, with a sense of great relief and satisfaction, returned to our own.

This cautionary tale of the perils of being an RVing novice is brought to you by the now slightly less clueless in the hope that we might save others from a similar fate.

-Diane

I Dream of Jetty

Atlantis Space Shuttle

The last stop on our maiden voyage was Cape Canaveral. We were visiting Bill’s cousin Pete and his wife Andrea. Our home for the week was Jetty Park, which is situated inside Canaveral Port with a view of the ocean and the Canaveral Air Force Station.

Bill & Diane at NASA

Since we’d arrive in Florida the weather had been ideal. On our first full day in Cape Canaveral it was rainy and chilly. I had to wear long sleeves, ugh. We took the opportunity to visit the Kennedy Space Center. We spent the whole day there. I've been to numerous museums in my life, but I have never had as strong an emotional response as this. And the Shuttle Launch Simulator was out of this world! The whole place blew us away. We never wanted to leave.

The rest of the week we spent lazy days relaxing, visiting with Pete and Andrea and exploring this lovely beach town. In spite of the unseasonably cool weather, we even made it to the beach one day. We got to see our very first rocket launch. It was a SpaceX satellite launch, not NASA, but we didn’t care. It was still thrilling. We were starting to really get the hang of this RVing thing.

This was the only time our campsite did not have a sewer hook up. As luck would have it, our site was mere steps from the bathhouse and laundry. We used our toilet and shower, but conservatively. If we were awake and dressed, then we used the camp’s toilet. We did good. We had room to spare in the tanks by the time we left. This was also our first time using a dump station. Not the most pleasant thing we’ve ever done, but at least now we know how.

Bill, Pete and Andrea

That week, and the month as a whole, flew by. It was a wonderful trip and its end was bittersweet. We'd come a long way in every sense. The trip home was the reverse of the trip down minus the snow, cold, and glitches. We were seasoned RVers by now, breaking down and setting up in record time. Well, at least for us. The final leg of our trip ended as it began. As we neared home it started to snow. Within minutes you could hardly see more than a foot ahead. We had come full circle, and all we could do was laugh heartily at the irony and longingly look forward to our next adventure.

-Diane


Catch up on the complete story of our first trip:

1) Baptism by Ice: Digging Out
http://countingstarsrvlife.blogspot.com/2015/12/baptism-by-ice-digging-out.html

2) Baptism by Ice: Murphy’s Law
http://countingstarsrvlife.blogspot.com/2016/01/baptism-by-ice-murphys-law.html

3) Having Second Thaws
http://countingstarsrvlife.blogspot.com/2016/01/having-second-thaws.html

4) It Takes a Village
http://countingstarsrvlife.blogspot.com/2016/01/it-takes-village.html

5) Fifth Planet from the Sun
http://countingstarsrvlife.blogspot.com/2016/02/fifth-planet-from-sun.html